In Stereo
by elviswhataguy
Summary: Willow/Faith (Sort Of). On the fringes of the Wickedgeekyverse. Nice and orderly.


**In Stereo**

Up until then, she'd been her buddy.

Okay, not her buddy in any sense that meant they were _real_ buddies, but Faith had told her jokes and stories (even when she didn't think she heard them), didn't get freaked out at the kinds of things other people did, and always made a point of saying something nice to her folks when she saw them.

She still did those things, but after that day the girl had begun to look at her with suspicion, with a little frown on her brow, as though Faith had betrayed her. Before, sure, she'd maybe been a _little_ wary – she was wary of a lot of people – but, on that day, when Faith had taken hold of her wrists and pinned her to the mattress, holding her steady while the drugs had been delivered with a stab and a push – _Jesus, that had to hurt_ – their relationship had changed.

And Faith became a 'killer'.

****

* * *

Their paths hadn't crossed much at first.

Later, Willow would joke and say that she'd always noticed her and that she thought she looked cute in her matching drawstring pants and functional buttonless shirt that, on a good day, remained mostly stain-free and somehow managed to retain that faint smell of industrial-strength detergent. Faith laughed and told her that, yeah, she probably did look cute if you liked chicks who spent their days pushing around machinery, trying to avoid spilled meds and puke and piss – or worse – from floors and from other people's uniforms, and who could do up every one of those straps in under thirty seconds if the situation required it.

Willow raised an eyebrow at the last part, and Faith simply smiled back and let her think whatever she liked about _that_.

But, there was maybe a little truth in the rewritten history, even if Willow herself didn't honestly realize it. Faith, on the other hand, didn't try to pretend that she'd always had a 'thing' for Will. They had different-and-not-exactly-equal jobs to do, which meant they ate lunch at different tables and socialized with different people, and any interactions were token at best. Which was fine.

What Faith _had_ noticed was that, along with Harris, Willow had a 'special bond' with Buffy. Buffy relied on them to help her and 'be there' for her and sometimes Faith would hear the two being called over the PA system and everyone would know that Buffy Summers was having 'one of those days'.

Then Willow started administering the drugs instead of just watching and taking notes to study and telling Buffy that everything was gonna be okay; and that's when _her_ relationship with the girl changed. But, instead of looking betrayed, Buffy had looked worried then became even more withdrawn.

Then, for a short while, it got worse.

Willow had dated some girl Buffy got kind of soft and starry-eyed about, to the point that, when she found out they'd broken up, it turned into the biggest fucking 'best friend drama' ever ("I mean, I think I might have mentioned her once or twice in front of her, but it doesn't take much sometimes ...").

According to Harris, Willow had figured that was her part in the Grand Scheme – whatever the hell it was – finally over and done with. Willow was a 'killer' now too, after all, and she wasn't sure where she might fit in. But, over the next few months, Faith had watched Buffy look wounded for a while, then settle back into anxious and withdrawn until, finally, she'd gazed up at Willow with a hopeful sort of expression, as if she was trying to tell her that maybe things hadn't changed too much and Willow was still her best friend.

****

* * *

Faith would have liked to say that one day, after all that time, their eyes met over, say, a catatonic multiple personality (or someone in restraints lying on a bed with the bars up might have been fun) and, without saying a word, they just _knew_. That might've been cute.

Instead, they'd simply fallen into a habit of friendly nods and casual greetings, then, one afternoon, Willow had tilted her head toward Buffy and said to Faith, "You're the other one, right?"

"Yeah." She looked at Willow and grinned a little. "We don't like each other very much."

Willow had glanced down at Buffy again, lying still, asleep, eyelids twitching with whatever the hell she was dreaming about this time. "Yeah, I kinda got that."

"No, I mean ... well, yeah, Buffy and I don't exactly see eye to eye these days, but, I was kinda talkin' about you and me."

Willow shrugged. "Yeah, I think I got that too." She looked at Faith, smiled – cute and maybe just a little bit hot. "I mean, you _are_ a badass."

Later that night, when they both got pulled into double shifts, they sat together in the canteen during a break and drank some godawful coffee and traded little bits about their lives – family and schools and who liked dogs and who didn't like Italian food.

Faith was amazed by how much she already knew just from what she'd heard Buffy talk about.

The girl had some imagination alright, but sometimes the details made her wonder.


End file.
